Rail braces are used to buttress railroad rails against side thrusts exerted by the wheels of rail traffic tending to overturn them. Side thrusts of a magnitude sufficient to overturn a rail most commonly occur at turnouts or at curved sections of the rail which are subjected to high speed rail traffic or heavily loaded rail traffic. When a rail is overturned, the head of the rail is rotated about its origin to a position in which it is offset angularly with respect to a straight line extending from the base through the vertical axis of the rail. The head of a rail rotates with respect to the base of a rail when the lateral forces exerted by rail traffic on the head of the rail are of sufficient magnitude to overcome the force of the mechanism which anchors the base of the rail to the rail ties. Rotation of the rail head must be prevented at all sections of the rail inasmuch as if a lateral load sufficient to rotate a rail head is applied to the head of a rail over a relatively long length of the rail, it is possible that the lateral load could cause the entire rail to roll over and ultimately collapse.
Rail braces are used to maintain the gage of a rail as well as to support a rail to resist lateral movement of the head of the rail. These braces typically have an upper surface which bears against a fishing surface formed on the under side the head of the rail and a lower surface which bears against a fishing surface formed on the top side of the base of the rail on the side of the rail opposite that engaged by the flange of the railroad car or locomotive wheel. Traditionally, rail braces have been anchored by being spiked to a wooden tie. More recently, it has become common practice to support railroad rails and rail braces on metal brace plates and the rails and rail braces are bolted to the brace plate.
In addition to the use of rail brace plates, it has become common practice to use adjustable rail braces which enable a rail brace to be tightened as it becomes necessary. In one type of adjustable brace one side of the base of the brace is set at an angle and this side directly engages a stop welded to a brace plate and set at a similar angle to thereby provide a wedging action of the brace between the rail and the stop. In another type of adjustable brace a wedge is interposed between a rail brace and a stop affixed to a brace plate. In both of these assemblies the brace must be driven into frictional engagement with the stop or the wedge to firmly secure the rail brace into abutting contact with the rail. Subsequent to the brace or brace and wedge assemblies being driven into position, the brace assembly may be secured by fasteners such as screws or nuts and bolts. It has been found that where screws or nuts and bolts are used to secure a rail brace assembly to a brace plate such fasteners may loosen over time making it necessary to periodically inspect the brace assembly to determine if fasteners have loosened and the braces have moved with respect to the rail.
Because of the time and expense involved in having maintenance personnel inspect and tighten fasteners which secure rail braces to rails, the rail industry has moved to use elastic fasteners such as spring clips to bias rail brace assemblies against rails. A modern adjustable rail brace assembly adapted to be mounted on a metal brace plate and using a spring clip type fastener may be seen in U.S. Pat. No. 6,517,008 assigned to the assignee of the instant invention.
It is common for railroads to use two or more families or groups of stock rails in trackwork. Rails having a weight of between 132 and 141 pounds per yard constitute a family or group of heavy or main line stock rail, whereas rails weighing between 112 and 119 pounds per yard constitute a family or group of light rail or non-main line stock rail. The rails of the light weight and heavy weight groups have different dimensions. The bases of heavy weight rails are wider than the bases of light weight rails. Additionally, the dimension between the base of the rail and the head of the rail is greater for heavy weight rails than the distance between the base of the rail and the head of the rail of light weight rails.
Because of the dimensional differences between the light weight and heavy weight rails, it has been necessary to utilize different rail braces and rail brace components for light weight and heavy weight rail groups or families. This necessitates manufacturing two different rail braces and also may require manufacturing two different rail brace wedges or require the repositioning of the stops on the rail plate. In addition, it also requires a different rail plate. This, of course, requires a greater of inventory of parts for rail brace assemblies. Additionally, rail braces are not easily identifiable in the field. Thus, if a brace assembly needs to be replaced, the maintenance crews must carefully examine the assembly to know which one to order or to install. The universal rail brace assembly of the instant invention overcomes these problems.